Friday, January 30, 2009

25 Truths and a Lie

1. I have a pretty amazing sense of smell. For example, when I go running, I can smell the homes I run past. I can smell dirty feet. In my current position, I am a sort of drug-sniffing dog. A lot of the time, I don't consider this a gift.2. I have auditioned for a capella singing groups and for Jeopardy! without success. I did perform in a children's theatre group in college.3. Though I have won prize money for running and for writing, in both instances it wasn't exactly a measure of my talent. In the "sheer luck" category, however, I recently I won $100 in an online drawing associated with completing a survey. 4. I am a summer camp girl: I went to Girl Scout camp during middle school summers and attended a summer school program in New York between my junior and senior years of college. I studied abroad in Italy during college and lived in Africa for a year. I'm only recently afraid of the idea of going places for a long time by myself--because of my family. 5. I like the serendipity of being thrown into situations where I know no one but will come out with new friends (jury duty, classes, conferences, long travel, long lines). I don't mind talking to strangers in a safe environment. Okay, I kind of LOVE it. 6. I smoked cigarettes during the year I was as both a teacher and a waitress in DC. 7. I have learned to value achingly honest people. Especially because I hate being lied to--it makes me uncomfortable and it's a relationship deal-breaker for me. I continue to work on being more honest myself.8. However, I hate confrontation, so I sometimes struggle with situations where I know I should tell someone how I am really feeling. I am getting better at this at work and in my marriage. Overall, I adopt the "get it off my chest OR get over it" approach.9. I am a crier. I cry easily and often. I have begun to own my tears, because being ashamed doesn't help. Sometimes having a really important conversation with a student makes me well up, and I am okay with them knowing that the gravity of their lives is not lost on me. 10. I will always regret not attending my grandfather's memorial because at the time I was a self-centered adolescent. 11. I didn't drink in high school, but I made up for it in college. 12. I admire people who can give up their personal lives--their gift of themselves to their families--in the service of others. I am protective of my time with my family, and I know that limits my what I will accomplish professionally. 13. I have always wanted to pierce my nose, and I just might still do it.14. I recommend you do not get between me and the Indigo Girls.15. I am a little bit good at running, poetry, writing, painting, and cooking. I think I am actually good at working with teenagers. And at public speaking. Feel free to disagree.16. Once I got past the Baby Blues, I was surprised to find that I am not a paranoid mom. I am a pretty strict mom, I think, but I don't worry about as much stuff as I thought I would. I am unafraid of germs, messy hair, unmatching outfits, un-childproofed homes, and unorganic food. (But I it will be all organic if you come over, LOL).17. I have coined a term called "jennymooreing it," which means to attempt to fix something in a way that makes it ultimately disastrous. I jennymoore something just about every day due to sheer laziness or what I like to call "efficiency." One awesome example is when I brought a pair of pants home that still had the dye tag on it. Instead of bringing the pants back to the store with receipt so they could remove it PROPERLY, I jennymoored it, wrenching the dye pack off with pliers. And the dye pack burst, spilling blue ink on the bottom of my white-ish pants. Next I bleached the pants. And then there was a hole in the pants from the bleach. A lot of effort, after all, for a very bad outcome: that's jennymooreing something.18. Before "stalker" was the common term for a scary murderous person, my mother accused me of being one when I liked boys in middle school. I was A LITTLE obsessive, I will admit. But I got over that. Seriously.19. I was almost fired from a job for helping someone sue my employer.20. I sucked my thumb till I was four years old, and I had OCD in middle school (I vacuumed my room every day and even washed my windows). Of both conditions, I was cured by my parents offering me an incentive to quit. 21. I am worried about my kids going to middle school. 22. I am NOT a picky eater, but I don't like some foods others consider delicacies, like caviar and pate. And unfortunately, I am allergic to lobster, shrimp, and crab. 23. Prostitution icks me out. No amount of realism, pragmatism, or legality will make me feel okay about the women I see on a nearby street pacing aimlessly and the men who pull up alongside. 24. I once delivered an inspirational speech at a Christian conference.25. I have been flashed by skeezy guys too many times--walking home from work in DC, probably 10 times in Italy, and by a man who lived in my neighborhood when I was a kid. Ewww. 26. I have a fear of falling. You won't catch me climbing a fence. I don't even like walking down stairs.

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I am...

a forty-something wife, mother of three daughters, teacher/educator, amateur writer, artist and runner, among other temporary and permanent conditions. I dream about living and teaching in Africa (again), writing a novel (for the first time), working part-time, having another child (just did this!) and somehow, leading a less-hectic, simpler life--ha! I ask myself what part of my life can give right now so I feel I have more, and what can I add or bring back to my life to enrich it? I don't think I know anyone in my circumstance (raising young children and working or not working) who doesn't wonder what better ways there are.